To Seduce a Mortal |18+✔

Book 8⌇38. Pick Up The Broken Pieces

Chapter 38 ∣  Pick Up The Broken Pieces

-Maverick

Eris' heartbeat was faint but steady as she lay underneath the covers of my bed. I sat on the edge, my hand grasped hers firmly, but gently, my eyes never leaving her sleeping form. She was so tired, weak, and frail, her skin very pale. Her body had taken a major toll on itself after having being inhabited with the demon that had controlled her for so long...

I should have known sooner. I should have done more to protect her.

I shouldn't have pushed her away thinking that I couldn't control myself when I never even gave what we wanted our equal relationship to be a fair chance. I know what I'm capable of...and my love for her should have pushed past all boundaries...but I just couldn't allow it within myself to even trust an ounce of the control I'd worked on so desperately when she was dead.

It was my lack of doing anything that took her further and further away from me. I don't want to hide from her any longer...I shouldn't have to begin with because two individuals meant to be with one another, despite what the road traveled on has thrown their way, should always love and treasure each other above all else.

I won't make that mistake ever again.

My thumb brushed over the back of her hand, watching as her chest slowly rose and fell along with the covers over her. I'd changed her clothing, taking a pair of her dark yoga pants and one of my own large shirts and replacing the practically tattered ones she'd only worn a few hours ago.

I can't thank Micah enough for what he did...the sheer power that came from the demonic presence that had resided in Eris' body was bone-chilling. She'd been fighting that thing for well over a month and for just a mortal, she fought with the strength of an immortal being...but now her body was spent and broken, left to pick up the pieces of what the demon had left behind. Micah too had displayed a very dark presence, something that worked its way up not only under my skin but everyone else who witnessed what he'd done.

The last I saw him, my mother, Killian, and Tamsin were helping move his unconscious body to the parlor in order to allow him to rest. My heart tugged at the thought of Tamsin...Kenzie...how would my mother even begin to tell her?

A small smile made its way onto my lips, seeing the sudden rapid eye movement beneath Eris' closed lids allowed me to let out a sigh of relief. She'd displayed no signs that she was truly any better, just a breathing vessel of what that demon sculpted her to be. Now, I could hear that gentle heartbeat slowly pick up its pace, her breathing coming quickly for a moment before her eyelids began to press tighter together.

In the next moment, her eyelids slowly fluttered open, revealing to me not the pale green eyes that this new body had given her when Rook brought her back. No, instead, I gazed down lovingly into the deep, captivating emerald eyes that I'd fallen in love with while she was whole...the way I met her.

Eris just stared at me, her breath catching in her lungs while she continued to just blink with wide eyes.

"Well...hello my sweet little vixen," her heart skipped a beat the second my words broke through the gathered silence, "I'm relieved to see that you're awake."

Her breathing stopped altogether, her eyes quickly glancing up and down at me while she gathered her bearings. The air that she'd kept in for far too long exhaled on her noticeably quiet words, "Maverick? Is this really you?"

One could never be too careful, especially after everything she's been through, I'd probably think I was an illusion as well. For all Eris knew, she was dead and being projected into dreams of her desires, forcing her to hold onto Earth solely enough to give the demon a vessel to act within.